How many times have you been asked to consider downsizing, had your budget frozen or to consider the implementation of technologies or tasks that have requirements beyond the size, skills and abilities of your staff?
The IT manager faces a continuous stream of uphill challenges as he or she tries to balance the demands of an informed user community, ambitious leadership, admissions officers looking for a competitive edge and parents who demand every new bell and whistle for their student all under the watchful eye of stressed out institutional budget mangers.
In order to survive and prosper, the higher education IT organization needs to constantly assess the scope, manner and range of services that it provides to the community in order to consider whether functional and structural adjustments are necessary to respond to current technical, cultural and fiscal pressures.
This paper will discuss the drivers of these pressures and offer a practical method of functional analysis and organizational structural review to ensure that the information resource manager can make clear and considerate choices in response to the evolving needs of their communities.
